OUR TEAM: Per Knutas
Per Knutås is the Eric and Jane Nord Chief Conservator at the Cleveland Museum of Art where he oversees a department of 15 conservators and conservation technicians. He graduated from The School of Conservation at the Royal Danish Academy of Art, in Copenhagen, Denmark with a focus on modern contemporary paintings. Knutås worked at the Moderna Museet and the Swedish National Heritage Board, both in Stockholm, Sweden, prior to moving to New York in 1998 to work in the conservation laboratories at the Guggenheim Museum and at the Museum of Modern Art. After four years in New York, he moved to Ohio to work for the Intermuseum Conservation Association in Cleveland, followed by contract work at the Cleveland Museum of Art and private practice. He served as chief conservator for the Cincinnati Art Museum from 2009 to 2012 prior to his current position at the Cleveland Museum of Art. His interest are modern conservation ethics, artist collaborations and conservation outreach and advocacy.
In 2018, Per graduated from Case Western Reserve Universty's Weatherhead School of Management with a MSc in Positive Organizational Development and Change to further his leadership and organizational development skills.
Per ran a gallery exhibiting national and international emerging artist in Cleveland, Ohio in addition to guest curating exhibitions at Kent State University, Zygote Press to mention a few. He was on the advisory exhibition board for the Maltz Museum for Jewish Heritage and is still an active board member of SPACES, an alternative exhibition space in Cleveland, Ohio.

Full circle
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As I look back over my artistic journey, I can see how I've grown. And although it's in a different style, it's been in the same steady direction.
Before sharing my art for wider consumption, I was never too bothered to define my style or figure out what artistic group I fell into. But along with hashtags and daily consumption of social media came an insatiable need to 'define' my expression. Some how I felt that if I was able to figure out exactly what category of artist I fell into, that I would feel validated.
Whilst we all want to be different and unique nobody really wants to stand out from the crowd or be alone. We want to feel like we belong.
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I think most artists spend their time preoccupied with 2 thoughts. Is my work even good enough? And am I really an artist/ do I deserve to call myself an artist.
Insecitruty and imposters syndrome has always plagued me creatively but it seemed intensified through my active decision to embrace the identity of 'Artist' publically.
Despite everything, I felt like a fake.
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But having stepped back over the last few weeks, I have found that along with some perspective, I have accidentally stumbled across a language that I seem to have had all along.
Although it feels new to me, it is also familiar because these are the same delicate brushstrokes I used back when I used to spend hours painstakingly recreating every feather on a bird or evey wrinkle in a hand.
Now I make similar movements, completely instinctively, but this time instead of striving I'm at rest. I have slowed down and become steady and comfortable with the slow approach.
Some how, realising that I've always had my artistic voice but that I just needed a healthier expression of it brings me deep comfort. It means that I have always been an artist, and although I may not neatly fit into any one particular box, I do belong.
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